Larissa FastHorse News

The Global Theater Initiative (GTI), a partnership between Theatre Communications Group (TCG) and The Laboratory for Performance and Politics (The Lab) at Georgetown University, invites all theatres, individual artists, institutions, and audiences to celebrate the 59th annual World Theatre Day on March 27, 2020. Each year, a renowned theatre artist of world stature is invited by the International Theatre Institute (ITI) Worldwide in Shanghai to craft an international message to mark the global occasion. This year the message has been written by Pakistani playwright Shahid Nadeem. The message has been translated into multiple languages. Read all the World Theatre Day Messages here.

New Jersey Theatre Alliance (a?oethe Alliancea??) is offering over 80 performances and programs for children and adults free-of-charge or at significantly discounted rates during its 23rd annual Stages Festival (a?oeStagesa??), a statewide event. Offerings include performances, workshops, readings of new plays, and participatory community discussions taking place at theatres, libraries, community centers, and other venues throughout the months of March, April, and May, 2020.

Today PEN America announced the major career achievement honors to be presented at the 2020 PEN America Literary Awards.

WAM Theatre has announced the appointment of two new board members. Erica Barreto and Toni Buckley join Board President Wendy Healey, Vice President Arwen Lowbridge, Carolyn Butler, Margaret Fluhr, Ellen Ring, Diane Scott, and WAM Co-Founder and Producing Artistic Director Kristen van Ginhoven, as the Berkshire-based company starts its second decade.

Producing Artistic Director Kristen van Ginhoven, Associate Artistic Director Talya Kingston, and the WAM team today announced a 2020 season that focuses on ensembles, community, and civic engagement.

If there was ever room on a plate for a heaping helping of delectable holiday conflict, it's inside a classroom where heartfelt high school drama teacher and teaching artist Logan (Shayna Blass) sets out with three well-intentioned white allies to write and produce a a?oefully-devised educational playa?? for elementary students that celebrates both Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Month. Having been granted funds from multiple organizations, Logan, an intellectual who is serious about political correctness and whose professional credits include a production of The Iceman Cometh for 15-year-olds(!), aims to create a respectful and historically accurate drama without...

Works & Process at the Guggenheim  has announced its spring 2020 season. Since 1984, the performing arts series has championed new works and offered audiences unprecedented access to leading creators. The intimate Frank Lloyd Wright­-designed Peter B. Lewis Theater is the venue for these seventy-minute programs that explorethe creative process through stimulating discussions and riveting performance highlights. One-of-a-kind productions created for the Guggenheim's rotunda offer a unique experience of the landmark museum. Additional information is available at worksandprocess.org.

Urbanite Theatre opened its season with a seasonally correct, satirical comedy titled, The Thanksgiving Play. It was written by Larissa FastHorse who is a Native American playwright from the Sicangu Lakota Nation. Her work includes numerous contributions to Native American drama and plays involving indigenous people.

This play is a Thanksgiving treat.

Before getting to the review, allow me to write in full disclosure: Approximately a?' of my viewing enjoyment of this production was usurped due to the fact that there was an elderly gentleman having issues with his hearing devices and the one-act that developed in trying to assist him. The billowing and flustering and seat-switching that was going on with the 'annoyed and put-off' audience members added with the bumbling and fumbling of the Front Of-House staff that tried to assist him was, to say the least, amazingly distracting. Mind you, I was equally disappointed in the 50'something crowd expressing their irritation as I was with the lack of decorum from the staff. To the FOH staff, may I highly suggest to have a workshop on working with seniors before, during, and after a performance and allow for all scenarios that may come up during their visit. To the 50'something crowd...we will sometime (soon) be the age of that senior gentlemen, may we remember that and put forth the energy of how we wish to be treated during our twilight years. Seniors deserve our utmost respect!

Playwright Larissa FastHorse is having one hell of a year. Her THE THANKSGIVING PLAY has already been produced in various cities across the United States this year, with her next production already in previews at the Geffen Playhouse, and opening November 5, 2019. Michael John Garcés directs Larissa's humorous and woke take on Thanksgiving traditions featuring Noah Bean, Alexandra Henrikson, Jeff Marlow and Samantha Sloyan. After a full day of PLAY's rehearsals, I had the opportunity to chat with Larissa on her South Dakota, Sicangu-Lakota heritage.

Get in the mood for the rapidly approaching holiday season by going to the Lyric Stage Company of Boston's production of THE THANKSGIVING PLAY, a sharp and funny satire by Native American playwright Larissa FastHorse that holds a mirror up to reflect the craziness of political correctness on steroids. How does a quartet of white theater artists tell the Thanksgiving story and honor Native American Heritage Month in a 45-minute elementary school play without offending anyone while being historically accurate? Very carefully, and not without numerous false starts, each one more ridiculous than the last, until not to decide is to decide.

Geffen Playhouse presents The Thanksgiving Play, written by Larissa FastHorse (What Would Crazy Horse Do?, Landless) and directed by Michael John Garcés (Urban Rez, The Royale).

The Dramatists Guild of America is proud to present the launch of a new podcast, TALKBACK, now available on all your favorite podcast platforms.

We all know that person, be it friend or co-worker or maybe you ARE that person, who's just a little too PC and a bit too a?oewokea??. They're the first one's to jump on your when you're being culturally insensitive as they see it as their duty to make the world as a?oewokea?? as them. Well now with Larissa Fasthorse's a?oeThe Thanksgiving Playa?? currently being offered from Seattle Public Theater, we can finally laugh in that person's face. Or if you are that person, maybe you can find some moments to laugh at yourself.

Playwrights Horizons today announced that its beloved longtime Artistic Director, Tim Sanford, will step down from the position in July 2020.

The Dramatists Guild of America has announced the launch of a new podcast, TALKBACK, available on all your favorite podcast platforms beginning October 21st.

The Lark is thrilled to announce five plays and playwrights have been chosen through its Open Access program for this season's Playwrights' Week festival, which will take place November 4-8, 2019. This year's plays were selected from a record-breaking 1,320 submissions, and the lineup will be: Bernarda's Daughters by Diane Exavier, Park-e Laleh by Shayan Lotfi, We Built Our Homes Near Kingdoms of Animals and Magic by Omar Vélez Meléndez, The Cucuy Will Find You by Jaymes Sanchez, and Something in the Balete Tree by Ren Dara Santiago.

Geffen Playhouse today announced the full cast for its production of The Thanksgiving Play, written by Larissa FastHorse (What Would Crazy Horse Do?, Landless) and directed by Michael John Garcés (Urban Rez, The Royale).